Advice for scouting for family photo sessions I spend most of my time photographing people outdoors, and am often asked by other photographers where and how I find my locations for family photo sessions. Yes, “location, location, location” is very important but I...

When it comes to editing, I am self-taught, and after many years of trial and error and lots (and lots) of practice, I think I have finally found my editing style. Like many photographers, early into my journey I bought lots of actions which now lay unused on my...

My family over the last 6 months.... Does anyone else feel like me, that the first half of this year has flown past? I can't believe July is upon us and we are just about to break up for the school summer holidays. Throughout July & August, I try to work a little...

Outdoor family photo session Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire It's been an incredibly busy month meeting lots of families for woodland photo sessions. I worked with Nick for a short time in the Marketing Team of a local holiday company and he got in touch a couple of...

Wedding photography Shirrel Heath Throughout the year I photograph a small number of weddings, usually for people I know or have worked with in the past. Last month I had the pleasure of photographing my friend Stuarts wedding at Shirrel Heath in Southampton. Some of...

Privizzinis Passion Photography features Nina Mace Photography on Inspiration Wednesday I have been following Amber, who owns Privizzinis Passion Photography, for months now as her work is so interesting and challenges conventional photography rules. She lives in...

Yes I am very excited to say Nina Mace Photography and Vogue in the same sentence. I was incredibly excited to find that 2 of my images have been featured by Vogue Italia http://www.vogue.it/ in PhotoVogue http://www.vogue.it/en/photovogue The first image was taken...

Wow its been a very exciting month! I have been featured in some very exciting publications (more to come on that in another blog post) and I also won 3 Silver bars in this months Guild of Professional Photographers competition. The competition has thousands of...

This weekend saw the launch of my Beginners Photography Course in Hemel Hempstead. It's something I have been thinking about for a while, as I often meet mums and dads who have these fantastic DSLR cameras but they aren't really sure how to use them. I've seen the...

Harpenden family photo session - a styled shoot I met Fiona through Facebook as we have a friend in common, and we had spoken about an outdoor photo shoot when the weather started to pick up. I was really looking forward to meeting her, and her 3 children, and she...

Family photos Hertfordshire May 2014 I had been really looking forward to meeting Vicky and her family since we first got in touch via Facebook. She had posted lots of lovely photos of her son and on the day of our family photo session he didn't disappoint :-). We...

The Guild of Professional Photographers image of the month competition I really enjoy being an active member of the Guild of Professional Photographers and entering the Image of The Month competition. It has helped to train my eye even more and I have made a great set...

Charity Family Portrait day supporting SUDC (Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood) Saturday June 14th , Tadley, Hampshire. As many of you already know, there is a charity which is particularly close to my heart which is called SUDC which stands for Sudden Unexplained...

Photographing in the bluebells, Hertfordshire The last few weeks have been really busy as the bluebells have come out just in time for the Easter school holidays. The bluebells don’t normally arrive until the end of May, but because of the unusual weather we have...

Outdoor maternity photo shoot in Hemel Hempstead I was really looking forward to this session and praying that the weather would hold out. I have know Jeff a couple of years now as he regularly rescues me. Not in the knight in shining armour type of way, but in the...

Beginner Photography Course Hemel Hempstead Are you one of those Mums or Dads who has a great camera, but don't really know how to use it? You often get some great shots of your kids, but its a bit hit and miss and you don't know why? Then I have some great news for...

Family photo session in Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing Helen and her family in Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead. Before the session we chatted a lot about the type of images she would like, what to wear and who...

Saturday 27th April - Family photo session in Wendover Woods I am very excited to announce an upcoming family portrait day at Wendover Woods in Aylesbury. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/wendoverwoods The forest has incredible walking and cycling trails along with a Go Ape...

Nina Mace Photography Portfolio A 30 second overview of some of my most recent work. If you would like to book a session please email nina@ninamacephotography.com or visit my contact page https://www.ninamacephotography.com/contact-me/. I look forward to hearing from...

Linda was bought a Nina Mace Photography gift voucher last year by her work mates and we planned in a photo session for February in Basingstoke, Hampshire. The session was with Linda, her husband and kids, plus her sister and family and their horse! We were so lucky,...

I have been approached by a few local businesses this year to help them out with some more modern business head shots that they can use in their advertising and marketing material. My first session was with Lauren who is a local mum, entrepreneur, and owner of Cake...

Photographing the everyday - personal project with my kids 🙂 One of my goals for 2014 is to document as many everyday events with my children as possible -it's part of the reason I started photography in the first place. This weekend we finally saw a bit of decent...

As most of you know the main focus of my photography is children but I do also do 1 or 2 weddings a year for people that I know. This year I am photographing a wedding at Shirrel Heath in Southampton for Stuart & Laura. I have known Stuart forever, his parents and...

This Half Term I have been down in Tadley spending some time with my parents and the kids. There was a break in the weather one day so my dad, my son and I decided to brave it and go for a woodland walk. We walked through Pamber Forest through A LOT of water and then...

Nina Mace Photography named UK Top 10 Photographer Last weekend I travelled to Crewe Hall for the Guild of Photographers annual awards ceremony. It had been hot topic on the Guilds forum for weeks - what would we wear, where were we staying and would we be lucky...

I have been thinking about writing this blog post for a while as I am often asked whether I photograph weddings and to be honest the answer is no 🙂 I love weddings, I think great wedding photography is something that should last a lifetime, but I am most passionate...

The Guild of Photographers Decembers Image of the month competition results have just been announced and I'm so pleased to say I have won another Silver bar. That's 1 Gold and 10 Silvers this year so much more than I could have hoped for when I started in January....

I will be running Group family portrait days in and around Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Harpenden, Reading & Basingstoke in 2014. Dates for the first half of this year are shown below, including some information on the locations themselves. Please note these dates...

I know this family pretty well you can say - I grew up with Rob (and his sister Karen who is one of my best friends) as they lived 5 doors down from me in a village just outside of Basingstoke. I was so pleased that they asked me to come and take photos of their new...

As you know I am a big fan of outdoor photography and when I was asked to go to Bushy Park in London, I jumped at the chance. Bushy Park has an incredible mix of beautifully manicured garden areas and lots of areas which have been left to just grow naturally. For a...

I love photographing outdoors and one of the places I like to visit with customers is Heartwood Forest which is just outside of St Albans. The site itself is 858 acres and is part of a project which started many years ago to transform the site into the largest new...

Boy did I enjoy this session! I'm originally from Tadley and small village (think its a town now) between Reading and Basinsgstoke. My parents still live there so I am back and forth all the time. My dad suggested this location and I met with my friend and her family...

Outdoor Christmas photo sessions in Hemel Hempstead; In October and November I run a number of outdoor days as I get a lot of requests for images for Christmas gifts and cards. This year I met with a record 18 families!! So rather than blog every single session I...

Bump to baby photo session in Hemel Hempstead. Last year I photographed M whilst she was pregnant with her 3rd child and last month I was lucky enough to go back and meet the latest edition!! The last time I had photographed this family I had a really fun time with...

What a great end to the year! The Guild of Photographers www.photoguild.co.uk, ran a portrait competition in November. All of my customers who were photographed in November were entered into the competition and 3 independent judges were selected to choose one of my...

Along with the outdoor sessions I run in Hemel Hempstead, I also ran a few photo sessions near to Basingstoke in Hampshire. My dads a keen walker and took me to this nature reserve a few months ago and it seemed perfect for a family photo shoot. It has some beautiful...

I was really pleased to have won another 2 Silver Bars with the Guild of Photographers (www.photoguild.co.uk) this month. Both of these images were taken on my outdoor Christmas mini sessions at one of my favourite locations in Hemel Hempstead.

I've been looking forward to blogging this session. There's nothing I love more than photographing outdoors on a sunny Autumn day. A&J wanted to document their first pregnancy in a natural way, making sure that all their animals were included in the session too...

One of the best parts of being a photographer is you get to meet families and see them grow up. I met Laura when I very first started my business, and I photographed her youngest daughter who had just been born. She had this brilliant mop of hair which stood up like a...

As the Christmas Season approaches I get VERY busy with requests from families to photograph them for Christmas gifts. This year I decided to run a weekend of outdoor sessions to work with as many people as possible. Typically the weekend of the sessions we had a huge...

Last month I was interviewed by Turning Pro Magazine about my first full year in business. It was a privilege to be asked and I was very excited to find that my interview spanned over 3 pages. The full article is shown below. Nina Mace is a Hemel Hempstead...

Day 2 of my training course in Paris was focused around more new lighting techniques including the use of a beauty dish. We met in the morning along the Seine, and again worked with Jen and Angelain 2 different outfits. Jen was very Chanel inspired, in a fitted suit...

This is the second time I have been lucky enough to photograph Julie and her family. This time her mum and dad came along so they could have some photos taken with their grandson. We went along to The Vyne in Basingstoke, a gorgeous National Trust property. We took...

If you are reading on from my Paris trip part 1 blog, you will know that I have been very excited about going to Paris, learning more about lighting, and working with models. On the morning of Day 1 of the course (http://training.andrewappleton.com/) we met in a café...

For those of you that follow my website, facebook page or blog, you will know I have been talking for months about going on a trip to Paris. It was organised by Andrew Appleton (see Andrews training website here) through the Guild of Photographers. I am predominantly...

Last month I ran a day of outdoor sessions in Hemel Hempstead and Elizabeth contacted me for a session for her, and her extended, family. The family included her sons and daughters and it was also an opportunity to get photos of the 5 grand children. It had been...

A number of photographers have asked my about my editing style and whether I could share a before and after image. This was taken of my son a couple of weeks ago. On the left is the image SOOC (straight out of camera) and the right is my edited version. It's a bit...

My friends Gwen and Steve left the UK a few years ago to pursue their dreams of living in Australia. Every year they come back in the Summer and we all meet in a pub for the afternoon to catch up. Gwen had just had her little girl so I was really excited to meet her,...

I've known Sarah and Steve for years (19 actually..boy that has made me feel old!) as we went to University together in North London and I was her bridesmaid. Sarah is a great friend and pretty much got me through Uni so I am forever in her debt! Sarah is NOT keen...

As I mentioned in my previous blog post this year we holidayed in Holland, and as we travelled by boat, I managed to take all my (very heavy) camera equipment with me. As the country is so flat, and the sun doesn't set until around 10pm, they have the most gorgeous...

My husband grew up holidaying in Holland so this year we thought we would do the same. We booked to go to a park, very similar to Center Parcs, called Hof Van Saksen http://www.hofvansaksen.com/gb-en/holiday-park/the-netherlands/drenthe/hof-van-saksen. We planned to...

Photo shoot with a very cute baby boy in Markyate; Its been a few years since I've visited Markyate - I remember they have a very good fish and chip shop there and was pleased to see it was still there when I arrived for my photo shoot:-). Raelene contacted me after...

Around the 21st of each month you will see a lot of photographers getting twitchy and checking their emails as the 21st is the day the Image of the Month bars are awarded 🙂 Each month hundreds of entries are judged by a panel of experts from different areas of...

Baby photo session in Hemel Hempstead ; Just before I went on holiday to Holland (a blog post will follow later with lots of photos I took) I was asked to photographer baby Oscar who lives just around the corner from me in Hemel Hempstead. He was only a few weeks old...

My outdoor sessions over the Summer have proven very popular and I met 4 families on one day up at the Boxmoor Trust in Hemel Hempstead. Mum booked the session and asked that I get a photo of the 3 of her children together...she had pre-warned me that she had hardly...

Well its been a busy month and I haven't had a chance to blog all of my outdoor family photo sessions from July. This was the third session of the day with 2 gorgeous kiddies who smiled and were so happy for our entire session. The family even bought their dog and...

Every so often I ask (by that I mean bribe :-)) my kids to come out with me for the evening to test a location. One night I wanted to go up to Heartwood Forest late into the afternoon to see how it looked around the golden hour. The kids had a great time just running...

You may remember I ran a competition in the Summer to win a free outdoor family portrait session. I had a huge number of entries and the winner was also lucky enough to also win cupcakes from Cake Stories by Lauren (visit her Facebook page here ) and shoe vouchers...

At the start of this year I launched my outdoor family dates https://www.ninamacephotography.com/outdoor-dates/ and this months was at Frimley Lodge Park. This family contacted me after I photograph their youngest daughter in nursery and it was so nice to see her...

At last the weather has turned in the UK and its warm! Finally the kids can get home from school and we can put the pool out and just relax for the evening in the sun. We've been working on our garden and its finished just in time so we can sit out and enjoy this...

Wanessa got in touch as she had seen some photos of newborn photography I had taken for a friend of hers and she booked months ago for the arrival of her new baby. She had a little boy and already has a lovely young daughter and we had a fun session trying to get them...

Its been a busy week and I haven't had a chance to catch up on my blog so now I'm excited to share some of my photos. Diane, a friend who I know through my husband, got in touch to buy a gift voucher for her Mother in law. They were looking to have a session with the...

One of things I love most about my job is I get to meet with the same families year after year. I first met the twins when they were a few months old. I then photographed their 1st birthday and christening and a few weeks ago we had a session to celebrate their...

I am very excited to announce that I have become an official photographer for the Butterfly wishes network. http://www.butterflywishesnetwork.co.uk/. The Butterfly Wishes Network is a not-for-profit organisation made up of UK-based professional photographers who would...

I'm photographing a group of brides in August and was scouting for location with my friend last week - I kindly asked if she would bring her wedding dress and daughter along for a few test photos. A couple of my favourites are shown below and thanks to my friend who...

We had a great day on Saturday, firstly at a fun day organised to raise money for a charity close to my heart http://www.sudc.org/, and then we went on a local park, with a pub right next to it, and lounged in the sun whilst the kids played. As always I had the...

My son is now totally over me taking photos of him so now we go out for evening bike rides and if I'm lucky he will let me take a few shots. Over the weekend the weather was gorgeous so we went out to Bunkers Lane/ Chambersbury woods which is just behind my house. The...

What an exciting month - My husband took me on a surprise holiday to New York! He has earnt some brownie points that's for sure :-). All I knew is we were going away for 4 days...as it turned out even that was a fib as we went for a week and also managed to fit in a...

Finally I managed to get a day which wasn't washed out for my outdoor family sessions! I met with 4 families, at a local outdoor space and it was perfect - we had a bluebell wood on one side and a field with gorgeous yellow flowers on the other side. The day started...

I am a Qualified member of the Guild of Photographers and every month I enter the Image of the Month competiton. Its great fun but its also helping me to grow as a photographer and continue to produce different images. This month I was really pleased to find that all...

A few months ago I published my outdoor family photo sessions for 2013. The idea is that I find a great location and families then come to me for 1-1/2 hours for some relaxed outdoor images. I was due to be at Bunkers Lane in Hemel Hempstead but when I went out to...

Ceri got in touch a few months ago and said she has been looking at lots of photographers websites for a photographer that matched their style. They were looking for natural images of their baby who was due in a few weeks. I'm so pleased they came across me and...

Despite the weather being awful again I've managed to get in a couple of trips to the bluebell forest at Heartwood. The first day it was around midday so lots of dappled light (dark and light spots) and the second time was in the evening after school. The sun was in,...

I'm so lucky that whilst I have been on this photographic journey Ive made some great friends who are also photographers. We decided to go out into London for the day to Greenwich University and just let our kids run around and take some photos for fun. It was getting...

What is going on with the weather in this country? 🙂 I had to cancel my March outdoor sessions because of torrential rain and snow and move them into April in the hope of getting some sun. Luckily the weather was gorgeous - all blue skys and blossom. I met up with...

One of my favourite things about being a photographer is I often get requests from old friends to photograph their familys or weddings. I used to go to college with Amanda and she asked if I would photographer her evening reception at Sheffield Oaks Golf club a week...

Baby photo session in Hertfordshire - What a lovely session this was with this gorgeous little girl who was fantastic in front of the camera. I think she was fascinated by it and spent most of the time staring down the lens which is exactly what you hope for. Some of...

I've been looking forward to this session for a while but dreading the weather and I was right to...it POURED!!! 🙂 Ray and Katy were so great, totally up for anything and we ventured in and around Sheperds Bush (including down the back of Shepherds Bush Empire) for...

Its always lovely to find that my work features on other peoples blog's and this week one of my sessions is being shown on www.bellebebes.co.uk. To see the full post please visit here. Debs and Verity run Belle and as they say "This baby-oriented blog is not about...

I've been looking forward to this date for a while...I have a few very good friends, which I have made through my photography, and we decided to go down to Greenwich for the day to get together and take some photos of the kids. We had 6 kids with us in total...

I like to consider myself a baby, children and family photographer but on occasion a wedding opportunity comes along that I can't say no to 🙂 Another local photographer, who is due to have a baby very soon, reccommended me to her friends and after chatting to them...

I am very excited to announce I have become a Qualified member of The Guild of Professional Photographers (www.photoguild.co.uk) and that I now have letters after my name!! - Nina Mace QGPP I like the sound of that 🙂 Qualification involves rigorous assessment of a...

This week I had the pleasure of photographing Susan and her family. Their son is 8 months old and I must say I love photographing babies this age. They can sit up and stand up if holding onto something and they also have some great expressions. You can also play peek...

What an exciting month - along with all the announcement of my annual competition and launch of my outdoor photo sessions https://www.ninamacephotography.com/outdoor-dates/ I've just found out I've won 2 National Awards! I have received Bronze Bars for 2 portraits in...

This has to go down as one of my favourite sessions - firstly because I forget how much fun photographing toddlers are, and secondly because the family wanted photos of their daughter just after she'd woken from her nap just playing in her house. I photographed this...

I had an email from M saying that she would like a photo session to remember her 3rd pregnancy and would also like some shots with her son and daughter. Just before I left for my half term holiday we had the session and Im really pleased with the images we managed...

This half term we braved the cold weather and headed down to Butlins for the week. It was freezing but for one day it was just cold (rather than artic) so we headed down to the beach for a while. The kids had a great time jumping off the barriers, collecting stones...

I've always been interested in integrating graphics and images - alongside my photography I also design graphical family frames. Some images, especially baby images, work really well with graphics and here are some of my favourite exmaples below.. ...

This week I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah and her family who work at a company I used to work at many moons ago :-). The have a baby girl and she was at that great age where she could push up onto her tummy and was very interactive. She didn't cry at all and...

Its been an exciting month for me - I finally saved up enough for my new camera, a Canon 5D Mark iii, and Ive launched a competition (www.ninamacephotography.com/competition) and published my outdoor calendar for 2013 (www.ninamacephotography.com/outdoor-dates). My...

This week I had the pleasure of photographing a family in Reading with a 1 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. There were lots of really interesting pockets of light around the house and the kids were so good and I was really pleased with the mixture of potraits and...

Hooray a snow day!! There is a LOT of snow today and schools are out - my son is very happy about this and spent as long as he could stand it out in the snow in the garden. Great opportunity to get the macro lens out and after a lot of trying I managed to get a shot...

Charlotte got in touch a few weeks ago and was looking for some natural photos of her new baby daughter and was pleased to here that I travelled to her to have photos taken rather that go to a studio. This little girl was such a pleasure to photograph so smiley for...

This weekend has been freezing but for some reason the colder it gets the prettier the evening light. I ventured out with Sarah and her family to get a shot of them all together and also I wanted to get some of Sarah and her husband. I've known Sarah for years and she...

I can't believe my son turned 6 this week - its gone so quickly and dosen't seem like yesterday that I bought him home from the hospital. To keep a record of how my kids really are around each birthday I take them out on their own for half an hour and tell them just...

Its a busy month for me with Xmas mini sessions, my sons birthday and a lot of work happening in my house at the moment (we decided to knock walls down and put a new kitchen in just before Xmas we must be crazy) but when a lady just around the corner from me called...

Over half term I went to Butlins with 4 other families. The kids had the best time and loved their bedroom in the new Wave Hotel, themed as a submarine :-). We all went down to Bognor beach for a walk one evening and I managed to get some family photos in as the sun...

[blogshow id=bc91 player=1 autoplay=1 toolbar=1]Its always lovely to get a call from someone I used to work with in my Marketing life who has seen my photos. Claire asked if I would come to her house and take some baby photos. She's just around the corner from me in...

[blogshow id=bcb5 player=1 autoplay=1 toolbar=1]Great photographs are all about great light and over the last 12 months I've been taking as many photos of my children as possible in interesting light. This can be indoors where you close down the light source, or...

On Saturday night the sky turned the most amazing colour so even though I was half way through getting ready to go out (wet hair 🙂 ) I had to get in the car, drive to the nearest field and try and get a picture of it. This is pretty much straight out of camera - the...

Nina Mace is Hemel Hempstead Photographer who specialises in bumps, babies, children & families. In 2013 she was awarded a place in the top 10 UK photographers by the Guild of Professional Photographers and has been featured in blogs and titles including Vogue Italia. Nina also runs Beginners Photography Training for mums and dads with DSLR’s. Nina works throughout Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Berkhamsted, Tring, Harpenden in Hertfordshire.